The Petrachelys silently ascended and glided along the mountain for a few thousand meters in a more desolate direction. Hao Ren did not want his actions to lead anyone to the cave where Nolan was hiding. He found that the spacecraft's acceleration process was much slower than expected, and it lacked a sense of smoothness. This indirectly confirmed his suspicion that this was not the real Petrachelys.
This was just a simulation created by a massive program based on his memory. It looked very similar on the outside. Since the psionic equipment created by the Xiling Empire was incomprehensible to mortal civilisations, the core of the spacecraft was completely fabricated, and it could not go beyond the knowledge base of the simulation program.
"Do you really think we can reach the 'border' smoothly?" The MDT looked at the spacecraft clumsily accelerating out of the atmosphere, and could not help but mutter. "Will the mastermind of this world allow anyone to explore the boundary of the stage?"
"We may be stopped, or met with other obstacles." Hao Ren nodded. "Even if this world is controlled by a pure program, it should have some sort of self-protection mechanism, and this mechanism will definitely prevent data overflow. But before that, we can also observe the 'incongruous' parts of this world. "
The MDT nodded and asked curiously, "What do you think the essence of this world is?"
"Maybe it's some kind of computer program, a virtual world or something," Hao Ren said casually. After learning about the illusory nature of the world, he immediately came up with this conjecture. There were many similar conjectures, and the "program theory" was the most plausible one. "The process of the world resetting and the details mentioned in Nolan's memory are very similar to the characteristics of a virtual world. And the state of the Petrachelys and the psionic pistol can also support this. "
"We are now in a virtual spacecraft, so where is the real Petrachelys?" The MDT asked a very important question. "Is it still in your dimensional pocket?"
Hao Ren waved his hand. "No, I have checked, there is no spacecraft in the dimensional pocket. But I suspect that I have never opened the Dimensional Pocket. We are now in a virtual world, and everything we experience here is actually isolated from reality. 'Opening the Dimensional Pocket to take something out' is probably just a process in my mind. Do you still remember the first time we returned from Zorm? We couldn't bring our mercenary tags out, and our dirty clothes were still intact? Because all the processes are simulated by the program … Although we can't find the program interface in here. "
The MDT nodded again, and continued to sit on the control panel in a daze. Her original position on the ship was the control panel's slot, but now that she could not get in, she had nothing better to do, so she just sat on her own slot and pretended to be useful. Hao Ren looked at the terminal and could not help but reveal a thoughtful look. Perhaps it was too obvious that the latter could not help but give him a sideways glance. "What are you thinking about?"
"I think I understand what's going on with you," Hao Ren pointed at her body. "For example, why did you become like this?"
The MDT's eyes lit up. "Why?"
"Didn't I say it before? This world can only simulate what it can understand, because its simulation function is a program, and programs are rigid. It can't understand my psionic pistol, so it simulated a pirated version that can return bullets. It can't understand the principle of the Petrachelys, so it simulated a messy shell. "Hao Ren pointed at the MDT." Similarly, it can't understand a lively, talkative, and noisy PDA … "
The MDT's eyes widened as she looked down and touched herself with a stiff expression. "… Motherf * cker …"
"I reckon there has never been an AI of your level in this world, or even if there is, it would be based on a different principle. So the simulation program of this world is confused." Hao Ren rolled his eyes. "Perhaps it uses a soul scan to determine an individual's appearance. Your brain is too much like a human's, so the world simulated you as a human. But you're an inanimate object, so the world simulated you as a dead person. Plus, you're never quiet, so the world set you to be restless even after you're dead …"
Looking at the blonde girl's dumbfounded expression, Hao Ren slowly finished his last sentence. "All of these are just my guesses, but I don't think you can come up with a better guess. So this is the only explanation for now."
The MDT jumped down from the control panel. "Then why was I chosen to look like this?! Can't I look like any other? "
"You ask me?" Hao Ren rolled his eyes at the sky. "Maybe it's the system's default expression pack?"
As he said so, a thought suddenly came to his mind. "Or maybe it's because your soul is really like … F * ck!"
The MDT was startled by the 'F * ck'. "What are you doing?!"
Hao Ren glared at the MDT. "You're such a waste of your image! Can't you be a little nicer? "
"… So what are you talking about?"
Hao Ren waved his hand and turned around. He no longer cared about the messy PDA and focused on observing the situation outside the ship. He was very confident in his speculation. While he had yet to understand the real rules of this world, he had confirmed the 'simulation' mechanism of this world through the experiments of the psionic pistol and the observation of the Petrachelys. So the MDT's mutation was not a possession, but a complete 'change of appearance'. It was only because the simulation function of this world was not perfect that the PDA became a dead girl.
So far, it seemed that the MDT had the most serious mutation among all his tools. Even the Petrachelys, which had turned into an abstract labyrinth, was not as serious as the MDT in human form. Hao Ren guessed that this probably had something to do with the MDT's highly personified nature: a living soul was more complicated than any advanced technology.
Thinking of this, he suddenly felt a little awkward and could not help but mutter to himself. "A tool …"
Usually when he quarreled with the MDT, he could not help but treat it as a human. Otherwise, he would not have quarreled with a PDA so seriously. But after entering this world, the MDT was clearly treated as a tool by the judgment mechanism of this world. Although it was simulated to look like a human, the process of 'simulation' itself meant that the simulated object was not human. Because 'humans' did not need to be simulated here.
The MDT's voice came next to him. "What are you talking about?"
Hao Ren said casually, "Are you a tool or a human?"
He felt that the topic was a little inappropriate as soon as he said it. It seemed that he had asked too directly, but the MDT did not care. "What's the difference? The Xi Ling Celestials do not study this, because everything in the world is a part of the Empire. But if you really want to argue … I am a proper tool, a precision tool! The super powerful kind! "
Hearing the MDT proudly declare itself as a tool, Hao Ren slapped himself on the forehead. "I knew worrying about you was a waste of time."
The MDT's attention had now shifted to the outside of the ship. While the half-baked Petrachelys was operating strangely, but at least it had the ability to fly into space. The ship was now in the vast universe, and Zorm was in the corner of the window, shrunk into a fist-sized blue ball. Looking at the starry sky outside, the MDT seemed to be deep in thought. "I thought this world would adopt more aggressive defensive measures … such as forbidding our ship from taking off, or even stricter, restricting all flying vehicles to only operate within the atmosphere."
"Since we have successfully flown out of the atmosphere, this confirms my guess." Hao Ren nodded. "This world's virtual environment has a major premise."
"What premise?"
"It must conform to the laws of nature, and must be 'real' enough." Hao Ren pointed at Zorm, which was getting further and further away. "In order to increase the 'realness' of this world, some program must completely restore all the details of nature. Since there is a sky, then there must be a way to reach it. Since there is a universe, then spaceships must be usable. It can use meteorites or natural disasters to stop humans from launching spaceships, but it cannot create a non-existent law of nature to nullify the principle of spaceships. Because there is no such law of nature in the real universe, so it cannot create one. "
"Hmm, makes sense. But we haven't encountered any obstacles since we took off." The MDT was a little puzzled. "Is this world just going to let us explore the borders?"
Hao Ren's brows furrowed. "I'm wondering too … but let's not worry about it. Let's just keep going and see if there is an end to this dream!"
The MDT pointed at the image on the monitor. "Perhaps … that is the end."
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